Specifically, the Zotac ZT-90505-10P card is a custom card with a factory overclocked NVIDIA GTX 980Ti GPU and GDDR5 memory. The card is a triple slot design that uses a dual fin stack IceStorm heatsink with three 90mm temperature controlled EKO fans. The cooler wraps the fans and HSF in a shroud and also uses a backplate on the bottom of the card. The card is powered by two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors and display outputs include three DisplayPort, one HDMI, and one DL-DVI.

Zotac was able to push the Maxwell GPU with its 2,816 CUDA cores to 1,253 MHz base and 1,355 MHz boost. Further, the 6GB GDDR5 memory also has a factory overclock of 7,220 MHz. These clockspeeds are a decent bump over the reference speeds of 1,000 MHz GPU base, 1,076 MHz GPU boost, and 7,012 MHz memory.

We’ll have to wait for reviews to know for sure, but on paper this card looks to be a nice card that should run fast and cool thanks to that triple fan cooler. The ZT-90505-10P will be available shortly with an MSRP of $700 and a 2 year warranty.

Definitely not a bad price compared to other GTX 980Ti cards on the market.

Introduction and First Impressions

The Zotac ZBOX CI321 nano is a mini PC kit in the vein of the Intel NUC, and this version features a completely fanless design with built-in wireless for silent integration into just about any location. So is it fast enough to be an HTPC or desktop productivity machine? We will find out here.

I have reviewed a couple of mini-PCs in the past few months, most recently the ECS LIVA X back in January. Though the LIVA X was not really fast enough to be used as a primary device it was small and inexpensive enough to be an viable product depending on a user’s needs. One attractive aspect of the LIVA designs, and any of the low-power computers introduced recently, is the passive nature of such systems. This has unfortunately resulted in the integration of some pretty low-performance CPUs to stay within thermal (and cost) limits, but this is beginning to change. The ZBOX nano we’re looking at today carries on the recent trend of incorporating slightly higher performance parts as its Intel Celeron processor (the 2961Y) is based on Haswell, and not the Atom cores at the heart of so many of these small systems.

Another parallel to the Intel NUC is the requirement to bring your own memory and storage, and the ZBOX CI321 nano accepts a pair of DDR3 SoDIMMs and 2.5” storage drives. The Intel Celeron 2961Y processor supports up to 1600 MHz dual-channel DDR3L which allows for much higher memory bandwidth than many other mini-PCs, and the storage controller supports SATA 6.0 Gbps which allows for higher performance than the eMMC storage found in a lot of mini-PCs, depending on the drive you choose to install. Of course your mileage will vary depending on the components selected to complete the build, but it shouldn’t be difficult to build a reasonably fast system.

NVIDIA’s AIB partners are out in full force at Computex 2015 with new graphics cards and new coolers. Among the fray is Zotac with a customized GTX TITAN X card using the ArcticStorm Hybrid cooler which is an air cooler that also features a water block and can be integrated into your custom water cooling loop.

Of course, the TITAN X is NVIDIA’s top end Maxwell (GM200) graphics processor built on a 28nm process. It has 3,072 CUDA cores, 192 texture units, 96 ROPs, and a 250W TDP.

Zotac is factory overclocking this GPU to 1026 MHz base and 1114 MHz boost. The 12GB of GDDR5 memory sits on a 384-bit bus and is also (slightly) factory overclocked at 7010 MHz.

The card itself has the same array of video outputs (three DisplayPort, one HDMI, and one DL-DVI) and the same PCI-E power connectors (6-pin + 8-pin) as the reference card.

The ArcticStorm Hybrid cooler can work as an air cooler or as an air + water cooler similar to ASUS’ Poseidon cards. The Zotac cooler features a copper cold plate paired with heatpipes and a large aluminum fin array cooled by three 90mm shrouded fans.

This cooler should run quieter than the NVIDIA reference card and, especially when connected to your custom liquid cooling loop, and offer lower temperatures. Zotac did not opt for two 8-pin PCI-E so extreme overclocking might be out of the question, but the card should still be heavily overclockable in general should you get a good chip.

Naturally, Zotac is holding off on pricing and availability details of the GTX TITAN X ArcticStorm (ZT-90402-10P) until it is ready to ship which should be soon. Stay tuned to PC Perspective for more details.

Zotac recently launched a new line of tiny ZBOX PCs under the new R Series that support two drive RAID 0 and RAID 1 setups. The series currently includes the ZBOX 1323 and ZBOX R1531. Both systems can be mounted vertically or horizontally and strongly resemble the company's existing ZBOX computers. The top and bottom panels are black with a silver bezel around the sides. A Zotac logo sits in the corner and a large blue circle sits in the center of the top.

The front panel hosts two audio jacks, an SDXC ard reader, COM port, IR reciever, and power button. Around back, the ZBOX boasts two antennas for the internal wireless module, two Gigabit Ethernet jacks, two USB 3.0 ports, and DisplayPort and HDMI video outputs. A third USB 3.0 port sits along the top edge of this small form factor PC.

Internally, Zotac is using Intel processors, a small form factor motherboard with two SO-DIMM slots (up to 16 GB), a Mini PCI-E slot for the 802.11ac (plus Bluetooth 4.0) wireless card, and support for up to two 2.5" SATA drives. The motherboard supports RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD configurations for the SATA drives, and the R1531 SKU adds a mSATA slot for a third drive.

The ZBOX R1323 is equipped with a 11.5W dual core Intel (Haswell) Celeron 2961Y processor clocked at 1.1 GHz with 2MB cache and Intel HD Graphics clocked at up to 850 MHz. The ZBOX R1531 steps up to a 15W dual core (plus Hyperthreading) Broadwell-based Intel Core i3-5010U clocked at 2.1 GHz with HD 5500 graphics clocked at up to 900 MHz.

Both versions will be offered as barebones systems and the R1531 is additionally be sold in a PLUS model that comes with a 64GB mSATA SSD and 4GB of RAM pre-installed.

The new ZBOX R Series PCs would make for a nice home server with a mSATA drive for the OS and two storage drives in a RAID 1 for redundancy. The Core i3 should be plenty of horsepower for streaming media, running backups, running applications, and even some light video transcoding. The included COM port will also make it suitable for industrial applications, but I think this is mostly going to appeal to home and small business users.

Zotac has not yet revealed pricing or availability though. Hopefully we are able to find out more about these mini PCs at Computex!

Favor a steamier TV gaming experience? ZOTAC has announced a new Steam Machine on the eve of Valve’s presentation at GDC on Wednesday.

The SN970 presumably gets its name from the GTX 970M mobile GPU within, and this does the heavy lifting along with an unspecified 6th-generation Intel (Skylake) CPU. The massive amount of HDMI outputs (there are 4 HDMI 2.0 ports!) is pretty impressive for a small device like this, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports are a premium feature as well.

There's a lot going on back here - the rear I/O of the ZOTAC SN970

Here's the rundown of features and specs from ZOTAC:

Key Features

SteamOS preloaded

NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970M MXM graphics

4 x HDMI 2.0, supports 4K UHD @ 60Hz

Specifications

6th Gen Intel Processor

NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970M 3GB GDDR5

8GB DDR3 SODIMM

64GB M.2 SSD

1 x HDMI in

2D/3D NVIDIA Surround

Dual Gigabit Ethernet

4 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0

1 x 2.5” 1TB HDD

802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0

Mic-In, Stereo Out

SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Reader

The release for this new Steam Box isn't specified, but we will be doubtless be hearing more from Valve and their partners tomorrow so stay tuned!

As processors continue to shrink and power consumption dwindles to tablet-like numbers with the newest notebook computers, the mini-PC segment just gets more interesting. While the tiniest of these (ZBOX pico, ECS LIVA) might not be suitable for any heavy desktop use, ZOTAC is trying to cater to all needs with their new lineup for CES this year.

The ZBOX CI321 nano

First up is a new addition to the C-series mini-PC family, the ZBOX CI321 nano. This is powered by a dual-core Intel processor with dual Gigabit LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and supports dual-channel memory. The CI321 nano is passively cooled for completely silent operation.

Next we have the next-generation ZBOX E-series gaming mini-PC:

The ZBOX EN860

The EN860 system adds G-SYNC support, multi display support (via DisplayPort, HDMI, and DVI), and support for 4K @ 60 Hz (though at what kind of framerates we will have to wait and see).

A look at the back of the EN860

Finally we have the second edition of the tiny ZBOX pico, a mini-PC that resembles a small external hard drive:

The current-gen ZBOX pico

The new version of the pico is set to offer both AMD and Intel versions with dual-display support, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0.

No specifics on hardware components for these new ZBOX units just yet, but we'll keep you updated once the show begins and more details emerge.

Just look at how tiny this new Zotac ZBox is, it makes the HDMI cable look positively huge and yet can power HDTV and even some light gaming. The current price point seems to be around $200 with deals occasionally available which certainly undercuts lower priced laptops. Inside is a quad core BayTrail Atom Z3735F, 2GB DDR3-1333 and a 32GB eMMC card for storage which runs the full verion of Windows 8. Bjorn3D managed to get this device to play Dirt 2 as well as playing back HDTV from a NAS set up as a Plex server, albeit on a wired connection as the WiFi did not perform very well at all. There were a few kinks in their testing which you can read about in the full review but overall this new ZBox performed rather well for such a tiny little system.

"Zotac is a company with lots of experience when it comes to small PC’s. We have reviewed some of them before and always come away impressed.The little PC we are testing today, and it really is little, is their smallest yet as it quite literally fits in your pocket. Even though it is small it still comes with WIndows 8 and is by all accounts a proper PC. It might not fit all users but it turns out to be a nifty little PC with several interesting use-cases."

The Zotac ZBOX CI540 Nano is a bit more powerful than your average Bay Trail based mini-PC, it sports a Haswell based dual core i5-4210Y which runs between 1.5-1.9GHz and has Intel's HD4200 onboard. This won't play AC:Unity but comes close to matching a NUC containing a Core i5-4250U, you give up a bit of horsepower for completely silent operation and for media it sports enough power to watch your favourite videos. As you look at Silent PC Reviews' article you can see the honeycomb patterned knockouts on the casing to allow heat to dissipate and to let in liquid if you don't put some thought into where you are going to place the ZBOX. It does have Bluetooth and there is an unofficial optional IR receiver that can be used to make it easy to place this tiny computer in a safe place.